Taco Wonton Cupcakes

After the Lasagna Cupcakes I made a few weeks ago were a huge success, I started thinking that the same concept could be applied using Mexican ingredients, with equally mouth-watering results. After receiving a big cooler of goodies from Wholly Guacamole this week (check back soon for a chance to win your own!) it seemed like a good time to test this theory. I’m pleased to say the results were outstanding! These Taco Wonton Cupcakes pack a ton of flavor and spice into every bite. The chili oil adds heat, the chunky, juicy salsa adds flavor, the gooey queso dip oozes onto your tongue with each bite, and the beef and black bean mixture gives the cupcakes texture and makes them hearty and filling.

I loved the spiciness of these Taco Wonton Cupcakes on their own, but adding a dollop of Wholly Guacamole (pictured above) provides a cool, creamy contrast, so feel free to add some guacamole or sour cream if you want to balance the heat (adding these toppings will affect the P+ value). These are easy to make and great for portion control. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 375. Lightly mist 8 cups in a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

Heat chili oil in a sauté pan or large skillet over medium-high heat, add the ground beef and taco seasoning and brown beef, breaking it up with a spoon. Add black beans and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes until warm.

Push a wonton wrapper into the bottom of each of the eight sprayed cups in the muffin tin. Spoon a teaspoon of queso dip into each wonton wrapper and spread across the bottom. Follow by spooning some of the meat/beans mixture into each cup (using about half the total mixture) and then splitting ½ cup of the salsa evenly into each cup. Sprinkle about half the shredded Mexican cheese evenly over the top of each cup. Press another wonton wrapper on top and repeat the layering steps with the remaining ingredients.

How can you write that if you haven’t had it yet? (when this comment was posted)

I don’t know about you but I can’t describe food as ‘yum’ or yummy until I eat it.

wendyg replied: — August 30th, 2012 @ 10:11 pm

Seriously? I’m pretty sure I responded with a YUM too when I first saw this. It’s not too hard to appreciate a recipe when you know you love the ingredients but they’re presented in a new form. And after feeding myself three times a day (or more!) for over 50 years, I’m pretty sure I know when I’m going to enjoy a recipe as easy as this one. And may I say this one sure didn’t disappoint. We’ve been eating it every week since I first tried it. YUM!

Anonymous replied: — November 6th, 2012 @ 3:09 pm

Gonna give it a try. I know I like the list of ingredients as well. The true test for my pallet will be one of texture!! Thanks for sharing!

Bummed. I saw the pic and clicked the link, hoping to make these to take camping – but we can’t do wonton wrappers (gluten). I thought they were made with corn tortillas. Oh well. They look yummy anyway.

Feel free to try them with corn tortillas, I bet those would work too. I personally love the Mission brand corn tortillas (you’ll see I use those in a bunch of other recipes). Experiment and let me know!

In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour and xanthan gum. Add the eggs and 2 tablespoons water to the flour mixture and beat together to combine. Press the mixture together with wet hands. It should stick together when pressed, and should have a smooth but stiff consistency. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the proper consistency. Separate the dough into two disks. Roll out each disk between two sheets of plastic wrap until they’re about 1/8 inch thick. Remove the plastic wrap, dust both sides with more flour, and slice into desired shapes with a sharp knife. When you’re using the wrappers, moisten the edges with a bit of warm water to help them stick together when cinched closed.

I finally made these (after making the lasagna cupcakes last night so I had plenty of wontons)! They were spicy for me, but of course I’d made some changes. I keep ending up making 12 cupcakes instead of 8 so I end up with fewer points. Yay! Oh, and I had rotisserie chicken on hand but no ground beef or ground turkey. I also added some canned corn. Oh, and I didn’t have the queso, so I just skipped it.

Thanks again for a delicious recipe! You are so making me want to try other things with wonton wrappers.

I made these tonight. My husband and I loved them and they were super filling. Not too mention extremely tasty. This gave us renewed hope in WW recipes and hubby said we need to trust this blog and follow it more because of it. Thanks!

Just made these tonight and they were a hit! Gained “keeper” status from everyone. I served two “cupcakes” on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes (0 points) and topped it with 1/4 cup of fat free sour cream (1 point). It made a filling, delicious meal! Thanks!

Just tried these. I think I used more salsa than I really should have, with the results that they did require utensils to eat (bit messy) and we both thought they were a little too tomatoey for our liking. I think the next try, with less salsa, will fare better (also had some minor difficulty extracting them from the muffin tin without structural failure).

For most ground beef recipes, I use meat that was browned, drained, and frozen in a batch. I substituted enchilada sauce (we decided we weren’t that crazy about chunks of tomato), and added the sauce and cheese salsa (I used Pace Mexican Four Cheese) to the bean/meat mix to simplify assembly. Also added olives, and used a little flour to thicken the mix, since I’d added too much sauce. Came out quite good, IMO, and I wound up with enough meat mixture for 10 cupcakes.

Made these for dinner tonight, they were great! I think next time I may add the salsa to the hamburger mixture to cook off some of the liquid as mine ended up a bit runny. What size pan did you use? I have the standard 12 cupcake pan, it seems the stuff was spilling out. Will definitely make these again!

I made them with the FF refries and they were delicious!!! The bottoms didn’t get as crispy as I would have liked though. Next time, I’ll put some tin foil over the top so they don’t burn and leave them in a little longer. I took my 1/4 avocado and just mashed it up and spread it over 2 cupcakes, so I added 1 pt to each cupcake. So, so, so good and fun to make.

Emily, I was going to try making an appetizer version of these using a mini muffin pan and only one wrapper. I need to feed a lot of people and want something I can eat too! I think the refried beans will keep keep it together even if some spills out with just the one wrapper.

Wendy – I’ve made the Buffalo Chicken “Caupcakes” as minis before and I think any of the wonton cupcakes would work just great that way! If you prefer refried beans that’s fine, but I think black beans would work just as well (my preference). I just used one wonton in each cup of a mini muffin pan and then did one layer of the fillings and one layer of the shredded cheese. When I did it with the Buffalo ones it made 24 mini “cupcakes’ perfectly! Let me know how they turn out!

Made these tonight and they’re a keeper!! I love your site and have made several recipes so far: blueberry, peach oatmeal, etc. Always so good! Many thanks for all the hard work you put into creating fun dishes and maintaining this site!

I saw the taco cupcakes mentioned on a Weight Watchers msg board. I made them tonight. I did’t have black beans so I used fat-free refried beans when layering. These were great! My family loved them. I can’t wait to make some of the other recipes you have. This was a nice change from regular tacos.

I made these last night and they were excellent. The only issue I had was the wonton not getting crisp in the pan. Nextt ime I will try putting them in the office for a few minutes before I put the filling in. These were excellent!

We tried these and LOVED them! Do you know if you could freeze them? If so, would it be better to freeze before cooked or after? We have a daughter in college who would also love these if I can freeze them.

I’ve found a lot of recipes that sound amazing on your blog, can’t wait to try them. On the taco cupcakes, i would probably use olive oil instead of chili oil, i don’t like heat with my food:) i will probably also add black olives.

Megan, my family thought it was bit too spicy the first time (I LOVED it) so I did just that, used olive oil instead and it absolutely took down the heat.

Tiffany replied: — October 12th, 2012 @ 2:51 pm

Glad to see you did this! I went to the store frantically searching for the right oil and couldn’t find it. I looked in the asian aisle and then thought maybe they stuck it with the oil and to no avail. I was wondering if I should just do without or add some olive oil. Thanks for testing it for me first! LOL

Made these tonight with olive oil, mild taco seasoning, queso and salsa because we don’t like the burn. Huge hit with hubby, son and me! Will definitely be trying lasagna cupcakes next. Did not taste anything like ‘diet’ food!

This was so fun, easy & delicious! I don’t like taco seasoning, so omitted it and used Bush’s Black Bean Fiesta instead in the ground beef. IT WAS AWESOME :o) The entire family loved it. I also made the kids some Shells and cheese, added some brocolli and beef and they were thrilled.. I love this site! Thank you Emily! I’m always looking for fun dinner ideas 🙂

I saw a reference to your site on the WW message boards and I am SO GLAD that I checked it out. I LOVE your site. I’ve been dying to make things all portion controlled in muffin pans and your recipes are just what I’ve been looking for!

Last night we tried our very first EmilyBites recipe – Taco Cupcakes. OMG doesn’t even begin to describe it. The crispy tops with the soft sides/bottom were heavenly. I really enjoyed the spice from the chili oil. These really did taste like tacos. We had 2 each along with some green beans & mashed potatoes – it was a perfect dinner!

My husband hadn’t even finished his first one when he was already adapting the assembly of the recipe to make in mini cupcake tins as appetizers. He was so proud of himself, that I’m not going to tell him about the previous posts here where that’s already been done – I’ll let him think he a GENIUS, LOL.

I also wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your writing on all your recipies, you make the reader feel like you talking right to them and we appreciate you sharing this part of your life with us. I also just LOVE how you respond to all your posts – its so personal.

Aw, no, I think you are MY new best friend, Phyllis! Thank you for such thoughtful compliments, this made my whole day! I’m thrilled that you found me and that you and your husband loved the taco cupcakes! I’ve made the Buffalo chicken ones as minis before and they turn out great – but you should totally let him think it’s his unique idea if it will make him happy! Great minds think alike :).

I’m always happy and honored when people take the time to comment on my blog, and I love interacting with those of you who are reading and cooking along with me! Thank you so much for your comment and for all your nice words.

Very good! Added hot taco sauce to the salsa as the hot chili oil didn’t give much “kick” and the more I used, the greasier the cupcake got. So, placed meat on a papertowel to drain the oil and the hot sauce made a huge difference. Used a sliced black olive for garnish…very pretty. Test run- made last night, refrigerated and microwaved one this morning (doesn’t go too well with black coffee ). Lost the corner crunch but was still servable. And, I used egg roll wrappers since the store was out of wontons. I was told they’re the same thing, just larger. Mini cupcakes, 1 egg roll wrapper cut into 4’s, one per cupcake, bake approx 15 minutes. Thank you for this recipe which is so fun to customize.

I’ve made these several times now, and they are a huge hit with everyone that has tried them! My husband took some to work last week and now I’m getting special requests for them. Thanks for the awesome recipe!

I made these this afternoon and really enjoyed making them – thanks so much for the recipes, it’s great to see Weight Watcher friendly sites!

I used a bun tin so mine were slightly smaller and I didn’t have space to layer twice but they look amazing and I can’t wait to snack into them. Couldn’t find wonton skins easily in the supermarket over here in the UK either so will be getting them delivered – For now I used some Wholegrain tortillas and cut them up. I did find some very nice chilli-infused cheese to put on top and substituted the ‘queso’ dip for some Philadelphia extra light. With a dollop of guacamole I estimate each one comes to about 4 points (I may have gotten a little excited at making them and forgot to weigh everything religiously!)

Haha, I hope you love them, Becki! From what I understand it’s difficult to find a lot of the packaged products we have in the US in Europe, but it sounds like you made it work!

Anonymous replied: — March 28th, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

I definitely loved them; they were delicious as a dinner and also cold with some salad for lunch. I also managed to get to China Town yesterday so now have 3 packs of wonton wrappers for all the other savoury cupcakes you’ve created on here. Can’t wait to get started.

I made these last night and my family LOVED them! The only issue was that the wonton wrapper was a little tough only on the crispy part. Mine looked like the photo as far as color and doneness. Would this be due to not cooking long enough or something else? The wrappers were in date and just purchased yesterday, and I cooked them for 18 minutes. Regardless, the cupcakes were amazing!

Hm, not sure what could have gone wrong. The top parts do get crunchy. If you don’t like that part, you could always trip the edges before sticking them in the oven! I’m glad to hear your family loved them 🙂

I discovered this weekend that there is at least one brand (House Foods are the ones I found) that makes a round wrapper, suggested for use making potstickers and similar. They worked nicely for these “cupcakes”, too.

Made these yesterday. My husband was skeptical since they were called cupcakes. I guess it didn’t sound manly to him but once he took a few bites he was sold. Thanks for sharing a great recipe. I’m going to try the lasagna cupcakes next.

These taco cupcakes are great! I’ve made them twice now andM my boyfriend even loves them (and he is not too keen on Mexican food). I leave out the chili oil since we don’t like too much spice, and they’re great that way. So glad I found your website!

Emily: I am serving these for a board game night tomorrow evening, and was wondering if I could assemble them tonight and pop them in the oven tomorrow evening? Have you ever prepped them the day before with any luck? I am afraid the queso in the bottom will make the wonton soggy.

… these were absolutely delightful, I made them this evening for my hubby & I for dinner along with a garden salad & steamed broccoli, simply devine. I did half with chicken instead of the beef (for Hubby)& the other half I did without meat (I don’t eat meat) they were awesome. Your recipe was quite simple & very adaptable to the likes of others, thank you so much for sharing your recipes, I look forward to trying many more. <3 Lil’ Old Surfer Girl, SuNsHiNe

OMG. Made these tonight, and I loved them, but even more amazing, my husband (who doesn’t like “diet food” AT ALL) said at least three times how fantastic they were. (“That was a 10 out of 10, honey.” and “That was like a gourmet meal.”) I changed the recipe based on what I had at home — used 99% very lean ground turkey; pinto beans; added 4 wedges of Laughing Cow Light instead of the queso; and used FF shredded cheese. I am so excited to find a recipe that we can both enjoy (I’m doing WW, he isn’t.) Thanks so much!

First day back on WW and I made these for dinner. YUM! They are sooo good. I ended up making 12 of them and I cut back on the amounts of queso and shredded cheese, so my cupcakes were only about 3 points each. I added some Wholly Guacamole, a bit of sour cream, black olives and shredded Iceberg lettuce. My husband really liked them, too, which makes me sad b/c now he’s taking the leftovers to work boohoo! 🙂 Can’t wait to make your other “cupcakes” as well as some of your other recipes!

These were very good but I don’t know how MFP gave you such a different calorie count than what I got. I even used 96% lean beef, less chili oil, and made 12 servings instead of 8, and still comes out to 193 calories each.

OMG Emily you can cook! These are one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. They even passed the hubby test, he had four and wanted three for lunch tomorrow. I couldn’t find the chili oil and I used peach salsa. These are going on the menu as a keeper. Tomorrow I am going to try a couple more of your recipes. Please keep up the GREAT work. Thank you,Julie from Kentucky

I have made these a couple of times, once with shredded chicken and once with ground turkey – I usually just use cumin, cayenne, and a little salt and pepper instead of taco seasoning and I sauteed the chicken with garlic and cilantro. These are sooooo good and you can adapt the recipe with new cheeses / salsas. My boyfriend constantly asks for the “Taco cup army” Thank you Emily!

I just tried this recipe last night. I substituted black beans for fat free refried beans and used ground turkey. They were such a hit with my family. I am hooked on wonton wrappers and cant wait to try other things with them.

95% lean ground beef is already a low fat meat! Feel free to substitute it for something else if you prefer. You could add some high fiber vegetables like spinach or replace some of the meat with more beans to increase the fiber.

I just made these this afternoon. They are scrumptious !!! I liked them even more than I thought I would. I ate “3”. I put the rest in the fridge – I’ll probably re-heat them in the toaster oven. I wonder however what temp to put it on and for how long? I’ll also probably take some in for lunch at work – we only have a microwave. How long should I microwave them to re-heat?

I absolutely love this wonton idea. I’m definitely going to try some of the other recipes.

Well, I re-heated these delicious little things in the toaster oven today. Its perfect. I turned the heat to 350 and just sat the cupcake on the rack and let it re-heat for 10 minutes. That was just enough time to get it nice and hot and crunchy. This is one of my absolute favorite now.

Just wanted to say how much my family enjoyed these as well as the lasagna cupcakes! Delicious!The first time I made these, I realized I had gotten rid of my cupcake tin and had to make them in mini loaf pans. Just had to use a few more wontons to make it work – but the result was great. I too substituted refried beans for the black ones – only because I didn’t have any on hand. And thanks for the tip on Wholly Guacamole – I generally make guac fresh – but the 100 cal packs are both yummy and convenient.

My store just stopped carrying Wholly Guacamole’s salsa and queso. I’m devastated!! It was so good and made this all so easy. Anybody know where I can find it or what else I should use? I’m in Denver and King Soopers doesn’t have it, nor does Sunflower or Whole Foods. HELP!!!!

Well, WG stopped making queso (which also made me sad because it was amazing), but they also just came out with a whole new line of salsa a few months ago. I’m not sure where to find it in your area, but I hope you can!

These are amazing! I have made these twice with variations of whatever ingredients I had on hand. They are fun and I can easily modify individual servings to meet the taste buds of the kiddos that don’t like everything. Thanks!

I am making these this weekend…but I think I will skip the chili oil as we don’t do spicy. May just use more taco seasoning or add some chili powder. Also, do you think it would be as good without the queso? Don’t have any but can get it if it really needs it. My last question is about the layer – so do I understand that you put a wrapper in, then the ingredients and then another wrapper and more ingredients? I was thinking the two wrappers were on the bottom and the ingredients were all inside (kind of like the wrappers being an edible cupcake liner holding it all in. Thanks! LOVE YOUR RECIPES!

I would definitely use the queso, but it’s your call of course! Yes, I layer it just like you said. If you want to try it another way feel free! Glad you’re loving the recipes – hope you love this one as well!

I just came across your blog yesterday and I’m already in love! I have been on WW for a while now and I’ve lost 30 lb. Yay! But lately I’ve gotten bored with the usual boring meals I eat. I already have a list of recipes to try! For your “cupcakes” do you use a standard 12 cake muffin tin or one with 8 larger spots? Just wanna make sure to get the portions right when i try the taco cupcakes!! Thanks so much!! Danielle

Oh my gosh! I just started WW a couple weeks ago and have tried a few of your recipes. Everything has been good, but I made these tonight and they were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Packed full of flavor, but not too spicy and deliciously filling. I’m going to try more of the cupcakes recipes now! Thank you Emily!!

These were seriously delicious! Loved them. I used jarred con queso and medium salsa you can find anywhere (Tostitos brand)in the chip isle. They were perfect. I will definitely add this to my rotation.

I tried these over the weekend. So simple and good. My son is really picky when it comes to food. But he likes tacos so I thought I would give this a try. He LOVED them. Even wanted them for lunch the next day. Only thing I would change is the caso I used is a little spicy I might try to find a little less spicy caso. Othersie they are awesome and will try again!

I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. I’m going to change it up a bit though. The only won ton wrappers I could find had 160 calories each but I found some really small tortilias that had only 80 calories each, so I’m going to use those instead. This sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try it this weekend!

These were so delicious! My teenaged daughter loved them and ate four! I used ground turkey, but otherwise made as directed. Now I have a LOT of wonton wrappers left! Any tips on storing these?Thanks so much for the introduction to hot oil – looks like a winner for me.

I have made these twice and LOVED them both times. The first time, I made directly to the recipe. It was delicious. My family loved it. The second time, I wanted to see if I could cut out even a few MORE calories (not that it needed it). I switched out won-ton wrappers for Mission White Corn Tortillas (cut into slightly smaller circles), cut out queso entirely, and used lean ground turkey. Of course I kept the Wholly Guacamole *Spicy, which is delicious, and I didn’t know existed until this recipe. Kept the same cooking time and heat. Family couldn’t tell the difference in the toppings, but said, “The tortilla is crispy!” (think grilled burrito crispy).

I made these today and they are so tasty! I did have a bit of a problem, the bottoms of my “cupcake” kind of fell apart. I think it is because I used spring roll wrappers and not wonton wrappers.. silly me thought they were the same thing. So while I lost the shape during serving, the taste was fabulous! Emily you have been in my kitchen with me several times a week since I found your site! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful recipes and for sharing them!

I am so glad I found your website from the wholly guacamole page! My 4 year old is the pickiest eater I know and is super tiny because of it. I told him I was making him taco cupcakes and at first he was skeptical but as soon as they came out he was excited and ready to eat! I used ground turkey instead of beef and made single layered mini tacos for my 3 and 4 year old in a minni muffin pan. My little guy ate 6! I’m going to try lots of cupcake variations in mini size in hopes that I can get him to open up to new foods and veggies. =) THANK YOU!!!

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for posting such great recipes on here. I made your mac and cheese muffins a while ago and just made the taco cupcakes tonight. They were SO GOOD! Who knew wonton wrappers could be used like this???? Thank you so much for having such great ideas!

I made these last night, for my taco loving son, husband and friends. They were AWESOME!!! Thank you so much for doing all of the hard work, your recipes are amazing! And I love the WW points already calculated. Next try is the lasagna cupcakes!

Emily, I make a LOT of your recipes (in case you can’t tell from all my positive comments!), but this one is by far one of my and my husband’s favorites! We cannot believe how delicious these are and so full of flavor. You are a truly a miracle worker!

Made a hybrid of this and the enchilada cupcakes last night (swapping in enchilada sauce for the salsa, refried beans for the black beans and mixing all together with queso/cheese layers on the bottom/top). Mind = blown. Have made several other of the cupcake recipes and may have had a breakthrough on keeping the bottom wonton from getting too soggy – while I was sauteing the beef and beans, I put the first layer of wontons into the cupcake tins and threw them in the oven for about 8 minutes so they got nice and crispy BEFORE I filled them with all the yummy fillings. The result was we were able to eat these cupakes with our hands without them falling apart – super yum!

What size muffin tins do you use? I tried this with the muffin tins I have (sheet of 6, jumbo) and it didnt seem to work so well. The taco pretty much fell apart, probably because it was too full. I love all your recipes btw 🙂 I’m addicted to wonton wrapper cooking, especially pregnant.

Didn’t have time to read all the comments but did see the one from anonymous about gluten in the wonton wraps. They do make gluten free wonton wraps. Kind of expensive tho. I am anxious to make these as soon as I find the GF wraps.